A nice collection of gold nuggets found using the Fisher Gold Bug Pro and aftermarket 5″ x 10″ DD coil.

Why a Gold Specific Metal Detector?

The problem with the average metal detector is that most of them are designed for hunting a wide variety of metals and not gold nuggets specifically. Because of this most of these metal detectors perform poorly when they are faced with the challenging aspects of gold prospecting.

Gold nuggets are often found in highly mineralized soils that also contain other minerals such as iron, silver, and copper. This creates a lot of problems when using a metal detector that is not designed specifically for hunting gold nuggets.

In many other places, the gold nuggets are so small it becomes very difficult to find any meaningful signal from your conventional metal detector in their presence. This makes using a general metal detector to find gold nuggets very difficult.

Fortunately, there are a number of metal detectors in the market designed with gold prospecting in mind. These metal detectors are designed to pick up the signal for the smallest gold nugget while shutting up any interference from hot rocks.

2 of the Best Gold Nugget Detectors

The Gold Bug Pro and the Gold Bug 2 are both excellent gold detectors. Let’s take a detailed look at both of them:

Fisher Gold Bug Pro

The Fisher Gold Bug Pro has been around for a couple of years and has proven beyond doubt to be a one of the best gold nugget detectors when it comes to prospecting for gold nuggets. This metal detector works well in trashy areas when often gold is found and it also works well with depth although it has some limitations when compared to metal detectors that use a pulse induction technology.

The Fisher Gold Bug Pro is fitted with a voltage controlled oscillator which makes it ideal for hunting various jewelry, coins, and relics in addition to gold nuggets. The device is extremely fast and gives accurate audio signals for different targets buried close to each other. The screen is large enabling you to see clearly even in places with low light. This metal detector can detect a host of other metals in addition to gold. This is because it comes with a number of great features that makes it a perfect metal detector for anyone interested in hunting for all manner of relics.

Features and Specifications

The Fisher Gold Bug Pro metal detector was introduced in 2010 to replace the old Gold Bug models. The first model of Gold Bug was one of the best gold nugget detectors available at the time of it’s release, but the number of digital and advanced features on the newer models are a significant advancement.

The Gold Bug Pro metal detector is made in three standard versions: one with a 4.7″ diameter round DD coil, the Fisher Gold Bug Pro DP with an elliptical DD 7″ x 11″ coil and a dual coil version with both a 5″ x 10″ DD and a 5″ diameter round DD coil. In addition to the above three coils, the Fisher Gold Pro also uses the 13″ diameter Ultimate DD coil.

The Fisher Gold Bug Pro metal detector is small and light in weight making it an ideal multi-purpose metal detector although it is designed with gold prospecting in mind. It also has fewer parts and thus very easy to assemble and use. Like most great metal detectors it has an all metal mode which increases sensitivity and depth of detection. In addition, it works well in trash areas where often gold nuggets are found.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• A high frequency makes it ideal for use to find very small gold nuggets
• Can use different coils and thus can operate in different settings
• Is very compact and light in weight and thus ideal for carrying around

Cons:

• High Sensitivity makes it less conductive for silver or general relic hunting
• Finds small targets, but still can’t find them as small as the Gold Bug 2

Fisher Gold Bug 2

The Fisher Gold Bug 2 like its predecessor the original Gold Bug is light in weight, very sensitive and easy to assemble and use.

What makes the Fisher Gold Bug 2 such a special metal detector is its frequency of 71 kHz. This is the highest frequency of any metal detector within its price range. The high detection frequency makes this the one of the best gold nugget detectors available for small gold. In fact, it is the simply the best on the market if you need to be able to detect tiny gold “crumbs” or flakes.

The Gold Bug 2 also comes with three mineralization modes; low mineralized, difficult and normal which makes it easy to adjust the sensitivity in regards to the soils you are working with.

Features and Specifications

With an operating frequency of over 71 kHz, no other metal detector can beat the Fisher Gold Bug 2 when it comes to detecting very small gold nuggets. With its elliptical coils, you can prospect for gold anywhere. The coils are completely water resistant which adds to areas that you can use the metal detector.

You can also unmount the control box from the rod and hang it on a belt for you to work effectively in deep waters and in rainy conditions. With its compact size and light weight you can use this metal detector in any environment and for long hours without getting hand strains.

The Gold Bug 2 has great iron discrimination capacities that make it ideal for use even in highly mineralized soils. It can detect very minute gold in highly mineralized soils by completely discriminating against hot rocks and manmade iron substances.

To make it easy to use,the Gold Bug 2 comes with a number of controls that include the sensitivity control, the volume controls, dual ground rejects controls, mineralization switches, threshold control and a two 3-position switch. All these controls are well-places on the control unit and are easy to find and use. For example, when working on hard grounds you may want to use the audio boost controls to make faint signals louder and clearer.

The Gold Bug 2 metal detector gets its power from two 9-volt transistor batteries. The detector has three options when it comes to the coil to use. You can use the popular 10-inch elliptical coils, a 14-inch elliptical coil or a 6 1/2-inch elliptical coil which is favored by most experienced users.

Being among the lightest metal detectors, the Fisher Gold Bug 2 is about 3 pounds in weight. The metal detector has fewer parts and is quite easy to assemble and use.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Has very high frequency which works well with grain size nuggets
• Extremely lightweight
• Can find smaller gold than any detector on the market

Cons:

• Is very sensitive and can be challenging to operate in some areas
• In highly mineralized soils the detector loses depth on tiny targets
• Is a specialized detectors, and thus works poorly for coins & relics

A nice collection of gold nuggets found with metal detectors. Most of the smaller nuggets in the glass vials were found with a Fisher Gold Bug 2. Their accumulated weight is several ounces valued at many thousands of dollars.

Comparison

The Fisher Gold Bug 2 was released in 1995 and is still one of the best gold nugget detectors used by gold prospectors. The Fisher Gold Bug Pro was introduced in 2010 and it has become a favorite among metal hunters all over the world.

These two metal detectors are currently among the most popular metal detectors on the market today. The two have a number of similarities and differences that make them ideal for different prospectors needs.

If you love hunting for gold nuggets then both the Fisher Gold Bug Pro and the Fisher Gold Bug 2 are the perfect metal detectors for you. These metal two detectors were designed with gold prospecting in mind and offer a lot to an average gold nuggets hunter. But, before you decide which one of the two metal detectors you should buy you need to find out how the two metal detectors compare and how best to use them.

Quick Review of these Two Metal Detectors

Both the Fisher Gold Bug 2 and the Fisher Gold Bug Pro have excellent sensitivity when it comes to finding tiny gold nuggets. The two performs far much better than most of the other metal detectors out there in the market.

However, it is important to note that the Gold Bug 2 has an edge on finding small gold given the fact that it has a much higher frequency (71 kHz) than the Gold Bug Pro which has a frequency of about 19 kHz. This means that the Gold Bug 2 can find more tiny gold nuggets than the Gold Bug Pro can. So if you want to prospect for gold in an area known to have extremely small gold then the Gold Bug 2 is the metal detector for you.

The high sensitivity of the Gold Bug 2 may be a limitation when it comes to prospecting highly mineralized soils. This means that the Gold Bug Pro with a reduced operating frequency and overall sensitivity work best in such conditions. Given the fact that the Gold Bug Pro is also a better multipurpose metal detector, it is the better choice if you also want a detector that you can use for coins or relics.

The Gold Bug Pro is a digital system that in addition to the audio signal it gives a visual target ID. This feature is missing on Gold Bug 2 which is an “old school” metal detector in this regard.

For experienced gold prospectors, the display screen may not be of much interest, but it is quite helpful to beginners as it provides important additional information that they can use to determine if they need to dig up the target or not.

I am confident in saying that neither of these metal detectors will disappoint. Both are very capable in the goldfields, and you can find lots of gold using either of them. They are two of the best gold detectors on the market today.